Pittsburgh Symphony Decides 3 Directors Are Better Than One

By DANIEL J. WAKIN

Published: September 22, 2004

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, proclaiming itself on the cutting edge of orchestra administration, announced yesterday that it would turn to a three-man rotation on the podium instead of hiring a full-time music director.

The executive committee of the board approved a three-year plan under which Sir Andrew Davis would become artistic adviser, taking the lead in programming concerts with a committee of staff and players. Yan Pascal Tortelier, a son of the cellist Paul Tortelier, would be principal guest conductor. And Marek Janowski, described as a favorite of the musicians, would assume an endowed chair as a guest conductor.

Orchestra officials called the arrangement a ''bold new direction'' and a first for a major symphony orchestra, although the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra has done something similar. The Pittsburgh administrators insist that the arrangement is an attempt to respond to what audiences and the musicians want.

But the officials acknowledged that they were unable to find a candidate of sufficient stature for music director who also had the time to devote to Pittsburgh and who was already known to the orchestra.

''The needs of an orchestra in the 21st century are really great,'' said the symphony's president, Lawrence Tamburri. ''To find one person who has time to do that is extremely difficult.''

Under the arrangement, which begins with the 2005-6 season, Sir Andrew, 60, music director of the Chicago Lyric Opera and a busy guest elsewhere, would lead five weeks of the 22-week season, and the other two conductors, two weeks each.

They will divide the repertory, with Sir Andrew handling British and American composers and leading a Dvorak festival; Mr. Tortelier, 57, focusing on French composers, contemporary music and ''hidden treasures'' of the 20th century; and Mr. Janowski, 65, sticking to the core Germanic repertory.

Executives and a player involved in the search sought to put the best face on the arrangement, a departure from the orchestra's tradition of strong individual leadership.

It gives the players ''the opportunity to play Brahms like a German orchestra, and Debussy like a French orchestra,'' said Paul Silver, a violist on the search committee. The musicians favored a shared command early in the search, he said.

Mariss Jansons, the symphony's previous music director and now the principal conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, said he was tired of the jet lag from traveling between Europe and the United States. He was also known to have little taste for the fund-raising and audience-building aspects of the job.

''This is a very exciting model,'' Mr. Tamburri said. ''It provides us with lots of flexibility.''

The players are taking an increasingly assertive role, he added, pointing to orchestras like the Vienna Philharmonic, which have strong profiles and work with many conductors.